St. Elizabeth’s Hospital was built in 1855, making it one of the first psychiatric hospitals in America. Looking at it, this building seems perfectly innocent, but it has a dark and secret history of abuse.

Among the 8,000 patients, there were a few with extremely violent tendencies. Some of these, including John Hinckley Jr. and Richard Lawrence, had even tried to assassinate presidents. Sadly, many of the patients here were gravely mistreated, which may have contributed to the ghostly energy that lingers there today. Some reports say that barbaric experiments took place at St.

Elizabeth’s Hospital. Ice-pick lobotomies were a common theory, as thousands of brains and other medical specimen were found preserved in formaldehyde. There are also stories of unmarked graves, missing bodies, and a creepy incinerator used to dispose of human remains.

Additionally, wounded soldiers were brought in during the Civil War for surgeries and medical treatment. Many did not survive. The hospital is still used today, and is part-owned by the government. With such a tragic history, it’s no wonder visitors report chilling phenomena like phantom crying, moaning and footsteps, or air that chills for no explainable reason.

Florida’s Royal Hope military hospital was in operation from 1784 until it was demolished in 1821. A few years later, a replica of the original hospital was constructed. But while attempting to repair water lines on the site, workers made a chilling discovery: Royal Hope Hospital had been constructed on top of an ancient Native American burial ground.

Given its gruesome history and desecration of sacred grounds, it is considered one of the most haunted places in all of Florida. Examples of strange supernatural occurrences include surgical equipment mysteriously shaking and beds in the wards moving on their own.

Clearly, the spirits who linger at Royal Hope Hospital are not at rest.

These days, Canada’s Tranquille Sanatorium is best known as a creepy filming location in many television and movie productions, including the recent A Team movie. But it also has a long and storied history as a tuberculosis treatment facility.

Tranquille Sanatorium actually began as a ranch before its owners converted into a tuberculosis hospital. Many of its over 4,000 tuberculosis patients died here, and many say there spirits linger on.

The facility closed in 1958, but was reopened a few years later. It was ultimately abandoned in 1983 and, since then, visitors to the sanatorium have reported many unsettling occurrences. For example, when wandering the halls, visitors are prone to experiencing sudden temperature drops, overwhelming feelings of sadness and even witnessing strange unexplainable floating orbs.

Taunton State Hospital was built in Taunton, Massachusetts in 1854. Like others on this list, this was a psychiatric care facility with a dark history. For one thing, Taunton State was home to several notoriously dangerous patients, like Jane Toppan, a nurse who confessed to murdering at least 31 people.

But by all accounts, the staff at Taunton State Hospital were even more terrifying. There are many reports of doctors and nurses forcing their patients down into the dark basement where they would perform satanic rituals on them. Since then, anyone who visits the site feels uneasy when they approach the basement door.

And if all that wasn’t enough, there are also multiple reports of a mysterious shadow creature that crawls up walls and watches patients sleep…

Severalls Hospital in Colchester, England is a psychiatric hospital that easily earns its haunted reputation. This facility opened in 1913 and has a lingering air of misery. Severalls is infamous for its endorsement of twisted psychiatric experiments. Patients who were committed there were subjected to full-frontal lobotomies and painful electroshock therapy.

You might think the limited medical knowledge at the time justified these barbaric treatments, but there’s also evidence to suggest that these experiments were used as punishments for any patients who acted moody or defiant.

Then there’s the fact that many of the female patients committed here had no mental illnesses at all. Many were simply imprisoned in the facility by family members to hide the shame of giving birth to children out of wedlock.

Severalls Hospital officially closed in 1997, and has since been the destination of choice for vandals and those with an interest in the occult. Ghost hunters believe the facility is extremely haunted. They’re especially drawn to the mortuary, which they consider the epicentre of spiritual unrest.